Game of Thrones Cleaned up on Streaming
The sixth season premiere of Game of Thrones broke streaming records for HBO.
Game of Thrones is not only HBO’s current biggest show, it might also be their biggest show of all time. It’s a big deal, and that means that plenty of eyes were tuned into HBO Sunday night to see the premiere of the sixth season, “The Red Woman.”
It’s an important distinction to a note that Game of Thrones rocked streaming, because according to Entertainment Weekly, that’s where the meat came from. Combining streaming, live viewing, and two repeats gave Game of Thrones over 10 million viewers. That number puts it 9% over the fifth season premiere.
When those streamers are taken out, however, Game of Thrones actually fell slightly. Streaming is a commonplace way to consume media, but we’ve only recently begun looking at it in terms of ratings. It’s a brave new world, and Game of Thrones is heavily capitalizing on that.
Watch the teaser for episode two:
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The fact that the premiere is slightly down according to Nielsen doesn’t really matter — it doesn’t change that season six opened with a bang. It’s also not the start of a ratings-dip trend, though perhaps it’s too early to tell on that point. And if it were, it would just be another sign that live-viewing isn’t the drive it once was.
Ratings for any premiere, whether it be Game of Thrones or any other show, are important, but they become more important in the context of the complete season. It’s huge for HBO that Game of Thrones pulled in so many streams, but it will even more interesting to see what the numbers look like by the end of the season.
Considering that Game of Thrones is getting ready to wrap it all up, we might see more spikes like this down the line. That sort of sudden increase in viewership, however, is rarely sustainable.
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But this is Game of Thrones, and that means half the world will be watching.